Search Results (60)

Host physical, chemical, and immune responses constitute well-established defences against bacterial invasion. Recent studies have highlighted the critical role of cellular mechanisms, particularly the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in antibacterial defence. This review focuses on ROS generation by mammalian intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) and investigates whether ROS production is host-driven to eliminate bacteria or manipulated by bacteria to suppress or exploit ROS for enhanced internalisation. We examine the activation mechanisms of the NADPH oxidase (NOX) enzyme complex and the resulting ROS production in IECs, which, unlike professional phagocytes, lack the ability to engulf bacteria. The downstream effects of NOX-mediated ROS signalling are discussed in detail. Additionally, we explore the dynamic interplay between host and pathogen, with particular attention to how bacterial infection may disrupt or hijack host NOX-mediated ROS responses. The review concludes with key experimental considerations and outlines future directions in this evolving field. Overall, we present ROS as a double-edged sword, an essential antimicrobial effector that is also susceptible to bacterial subversion, highlighting its potential as a target in novel antimicrobial strategies. Full article

Viral outbreaks have caused significant mortality and economic losses in aquaculture, highlighting the urgent need for effective therapies and a deeper understanding of antiviral and immune mechanisms in key species. This study investigates the constitutive and virus-induced antiviral responses in juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) following infection with viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV). Trout (30 g) were infected by immersion with VHSV (TCID₅₀ = 10⁵ mL⁻¹) for two hours. Samples were collected at 24, 72, and 120 h post-infection to assess hematology, innate immunity, viral load, and transcriptomic response. At 24 h post-infection, no immune response or increase in viral load was detected, suggesting the host had not yet recognized the virus and was still in the incubation phase. By 72 h, viral replication peaked, with high viral loads observed in mucosal tissues (skin and gills) and immune organs (kidney, spleen, liver), alongside strong up-regulation of antiviral genes, such as viperin. This gene maintained high expression through the final sampling point, indicating its key role in the antiviral response. At this stage, reduced immune competence was observed, marked by elevated nitric oxide and circulating thrombocytes. At 120 h, modest increases in peripheral monocyte, plasma lysozyme, and peroxidase activity were detected; however, these responses were insufficient to reduce viral load, suggesting the resolution phase had not yet begun. In summary, while a limited immune response was observed by the end of the trial, the consistent antiviral activity of viperin from peak infection to 120 h post-infection underscores its importance in the defence against VHSV in rainbow trout. Full article

Beyond haemostasis and thrombosis, platelets are increasingly recognized for playing a crucial role in modulating immunoinflammation. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) constitute the first line of defence against infection and injury, with their engagement stimulating thrombotic and immune responses in platelets. Hence, anti-platelet drugs have been used to treat patients with infections and inflammation. However, due to the increased risk of bleeding with current anti-platelet drugs, alternative therapeutic targets need to be identified to ameliorate the consequences of inflammation-driven platelet hyperactivation. Previously, we demonstrated that resting platelets exhibit a metabolic plasticity that facilitates fuel selection flexibility, while in contrast, thrombin-stimulated platelets become highly glycolytic. Since multiple aspects of platelet activation require energy in terms of ATP, we investigated metabolic alterations in TLR1/TLR2-activated platelets. In this study, we have demonstrated that TLR1/TLR2-induced platelet activation reprogrammed platelets to upregulate glycolysis via CD36-linked mechanisms. In addition, we showed that this glycolytic flux is controlled by hexokinase (HK), which plays a crucial role in TLR1/TLR2-induced platelet aggregation. Targeting platelet metabolism plasticity may offer a novel strategy to inhibit platelet function in TLR-initiated diseases. Full article

Near-surface floating kelp farms constitute a Nature-Based Solution (NBS) capable of damping incident wind-generated waves, which might be beneficial to reduce wave overtopping on maritime structures. As the global mean sea level rises, the mean wave overtopping discharge is expected to increase. The incorporation of this NBS, as a green–grey solution, might be beneficial to mitigate this effect. Physical modelling experiments with random waves have been conducted to assess the ability of this NBS to reduce the mean wave overtopping discharge on a rubble mound breakwater. Results show that while the mean wave overtopping discharge was reduced by 47% with a kelp farm length of 50 m (prototype scale), a kelp farm of 200 m achieved a reduction of 93% for the tested conditions. This reduction is mainly a function of the ratio between floating kelp farm length and incident wavelength. An idealized case study at the Port of Leixões breakwater suggests that, under storm wave conditions with return period of 2 and 5 years, floating kelp farms could maintain mean wave overtopping discharges below present levels until 2070. Thus, this study highlights the relevance of incorporating NBS with existing coastal and port defence structures as an adaptation measure to mitigate climate change effects. Full article

Among other calcium decoders, Ca²⁺-dependent protein kinases (CDPK) stands out for its ability, depending on calcium levels, to activate key components of the defence system. However, calcium dependence prevents the effective use of CDPKs in comprehensive investigations of their functions. Previously, we showed that a modified constitutively active form of AtCPK1 improved heat tolerance in tobacco plants. At present, the role of calcium ions and their decoders in the regulation of heat tolerance is not fully understood. The response of plant cells to excessive temperature increases is regulated by complex interactions of hormonal signalling systems, among which the least studied is BR signalling. In the present work, we investigated the role of CDPK in the interactions of BR and ET signalling during heat stress. The use of a modified calcium-independent form of AtCPK1 in this work allowed us to answer a number of questions. We showed that dependence on heat-induced calcium ion currents determines the priority of the activation of ABA signalling. Thus, CPK-dependent activation of ABA signalling may not lead to an insufficient response from BR and ET signalling. Modified CPK1 activates BR signalling, which has a positive effect on the tolerance of transgenic plants to increased temperature. The obtained data shed light on heat-associated molecular processes and can draw attention to the possibility of using intradomain modifications of CDPK both for a comprehensive study of its functional features and as a bioengineering tool. Full article

Invasive fungal infections constitute a substantial global health burden, with invasive candidiasis representing approximately 70% of reported cases worldwide. The emergence of antifungal resistance among Candida species has further exacerbated this challenge to healthcare systems. Recent epidemiological studies have documented a concerning shift towards non-albicans Candida species, exhibiting reduced antifungal susceptibility, in invasive candidiasis cases. The complement system serves as a crucial first-line defence mechanism against Candida infections. These fungal pathogens can activate the complement cascade through three conventional pathways—classical, lectin, and alternative—in addition to activation through the coagulation system. While these pathways are initiated by distinct molecular triggers, they converge at C3 convertase formation, ultimately generating biologically active products and the membrane attack complex. Candida species have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to evade complement-mediated host defence, including the masking of cell wall components, proteolytic cleavage and inhibition of complement proteins, recruitment of complement regulators, and acquisition of host proteins. This review examines the intricate interplay between Candida species and the host complement system, with emphasis on complement evasion strategies. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of exploring the crosstalk between antifungal resistance and immune evasion strategies employed by Candida species. Understanding these interactions may facilitate the development of novel therapeutic approaches and strategies to overcome treatment failures in Candida species infections. Full article

This study focuses on the physiological response of lettuce grown on Technosols designed for the remediation of soils polluted by potentially harmful elements (PHEs: As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, and Zn). Lettuce plants were grown in five treatments: recovered (RS) and polluted soil (PS) as controls, and three Technosols (TO, TS, and TV) consisting of 60% PS mixed with 2% iron sludge, 20% marble sludge, and 18% organic wastes (TO: composted olive waste, TS: composted sewage sludge, and TV: vermicompost of garden waste). The main soil properties and PHE solubility were measured, together with physiological parameters related to phytotoxicity in lettuce such as growth, photosynthetic capacity, oxidative stress, and antioxidant defence. All Technosols improved unfavourable conditions of PS (i.e., neutralised acidity and enhanced OC content), leading to a significant decrease in Cd, Cu, and Zn mobility. Nevertheless, TV was the most effective as the reduction in PHEs mobility was higher. Furthermore, lettuce grown on TV and TO showed higher growth (+90% and +41%) than PS, while no increase in TS. However, lower oxidative stress and impact on photosynthetic rate occurred in all Technosols compared to PS (+344% TV, +157% TO, and +194% TS). This physiological response of lettuce proves that PHE phytotoxicity is reduced by Technosols. Thus, this ecotechnology constitutes a potential solution for soil remediation, with effectiveness of Technosols depending largely on its components. Full article

Poetry and philosophy have had a close but uneasy relationship in the western tradition. Both share an eschewal of the discovery of novel facts, but are somewhat opposed in that discovery is a central aim of poetry, but not at all the aim of philosophy. Through a close reading of W.H. Auden’s ‘In Memory of W.B. Yeats’ and a versification of part of G.E. Moore’s ‘A Defence of Common Sense’, I argue that what poetry shows corresponds, in a broadly symbolist sense, to Wittgenstein’s understanding of the miraculous nature of the world. In this regard, poetry can offer philosophy clarity, in the form of its tonal architecture, value, and ethics, and may also constitute a perspicuous representation. Poetry remains in a perpetual mode of potential, as well as being possessed of a vatic autonomy. Full article

Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) have to face many challenges, including Varroa destructor infestation, associated with viral transmission. Oxalic acid is one of the most common treatments against Varroa. Little is known about the physiological effects of oxalic acid, especially those on honeybees’ immune systems. In this study, the short-term effects (0–96 h) of oxalic acid treatment on the immune system components (i.e., glucose oxidase, phenoloxidase, glutathione S-transferase, catalase activities, and vitellogenin contents) of house bees were preliminarily investigated. Oxalic acid contents of bee bodies and haemolymphs were also measured. The results confirm that oxalic acid is constitutively present in bee haemolymphs and its concentration is not affected by treatment. At 6 h after the treatment, a maximum peak of oxalic acid content was detected on bees’ bodies, which gradually decreased after that until physiological levels were reached at 48 h. In the immune system, the oxalic acid treatment determined a peak in glucose oxidase activity at 48 h, indicating a potential defence response and an increase in vitellogenin content at 24 h. No significant changes were recorded in phenoloxidase, glutathione S-transferase, and catalase activities. These results suggest a time-dependent response to oxalic acid, with potential immune system activation in treated bees. Full article

In this review, we explored the therapeutic potential of oleuropein (OLE) and hydroxytyrosol (HT) in the treatment of neuroblastoma (NB). NB is an extracranial tumour that predominantly affects children aged between 17 and 18 months. Recurrence and drug resistance have emerged as the biggest challenges when treating NB, leading to a crucial need for new therapeutic approaches. Food of the Mediterranean Diet (MD) presents several health benefits, including that of cancer treatment. In this review, we emphasised olive oil since it is one of the main liquid ingredients of the MD. OLE is the principal phenolic compound that constitutes olive oil and is hydrolysed to produce HT. Considering that tumour cells produce increased amounts of reactive oxygen species, this review highlights the antioxidant properties of OLE and HT and how they could result in increased cellular antioxidant defences and reduced oxidative damage in NB cells. Moreover, we highlight that these phenolic compounds lead to apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, reduce the side effects caused by conventional treatments, and activate tumours that become dormant as a resistance mechanism. Future research should explore the effects of these compounds and other antioxidants on the treatment of NB in vivo. Full article

On 26 May 2011, the Russian People’s World Council issued a document entitled The Basic Values: The Fundaments of National Unity. The document, prepared by the Synodal Department for Church–Society Cooperation, provided a catalogue of 17 traditional values whose general framework was constituted by a combination of freedom, unity, patriotism, family, and devotion. At that time, the Moscow Patriarchate considered religious faith to be the foundation of traditional values and it continues to do so. The defence and promotion of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values were also central in the Russian National Security Strategy (2015); this was the case in the updated version of this document as well, put out in July 2021. Furthermore, they have been the core of the Moscow Patriarchate’s participation in the Council of Europe and of Patriarch Kirill’s speeches about the war in Ukraine. Finally, on 9 November 2022, The Foundations Of State Policy For The Preservation Of Spiritual And Moral Values was approved. This framework permits us to understand the strict interplay between the Church and the State in the Russian Federation and to see why it is important to refer to the concept of post-secularism when talking about the role of religion in post-Soviet Russia. Proceeding from the Abstract, the present paper aims to analyse this interplay in a specific sector of visual culture: the cinema and television industries. Manuel Castells highlighted the relevance of cultural values in the age of information and the connection between the values and social mobilization that follows it. He pointed out that the Internet has become a way to render this connection predominant, inevitably leading to the development of social movements and networks that have a religious basis. This is unquestionably true; surveys conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (OJSC «VCIOM») and by Nevafilm Research confirm that a high percentage of Russians watch films not only at the cinema or on television (especially the older generations) but also on the Internet (as far as the younger generations are concerned). The importance of this market is also confirmed by the success of the cinema and TV distributor Orthodox Encyclopaedia (2005); in the words of the philosopher Sergei Kravets, who, commenting on it during an interview published in 2006 by the website Sedmits.ru, declared that the expression “orthodox cinema” can be understood as a way to express Russian culture. He asserts that “the fact that today Orthodox films have begun to appear on the central TV channels testifies that Russian film producers and viewers have apparently begun to be aware of themselves as Orthodox, to feel that they are bearers of a special Orthodox culture. [..]”. At the same time, consideration should be given to the importance of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Minister of Culture’s condemnation of films such as Matilda or Monastery. In addition, it is important to consider that, according to a survey conducted in 2022 by the Levada Center, Russian people consider television the most reliable source of information (54%). The long-term implications of this tendency may have very important effects, not only in terms of its objectives but also in terms of the consideration that, after the beginning of the war, many Western film distributors withdrew their licenses from Russia. This paper will analyse “the effect of religion on the institutional system, the regulatory environment of the media and the public sphere” by studying the features of films and TV programs distributed by Orthodox Encyclopaedia, their relations with traditional values promoted both by the Kremlin and the Church, how these have contributed to strengthening the interplay between the Minister of Culture and the Moscow Patriarchate, and the impact this process has had on Russian society and Russia’s relations with the European and Western World in the 2005–2022 period. A list of the films and TV programs being discussed will be provided, and then statements about the project and reviews of the serials and films will be analysed. The analysis will be conducted mainly through the official sites of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin and by browsing the Integrum database. Full article

The type-I interferon (IFN) response constitutes the major innate immune pathway against viruses in mammals. Despite its critical importance for antiviral defence, this pathway is inactive during early embryonic development. There seems to be an incompatibility between the IFN response and pluripotency, the ability of embryonic cells to develop into any cell type of an adult organism. Instead, pluripotent cells employ alternative ways to defend against viruses that are typically associated with safeguard mechanisms against transposable elements. The absence of an inducible IFN response in pluripotent cells and the constitutive activation of the alternative antiviral pathways have led to the hypothesis that embryonic cells are highly resistant to viruses. However, some findings challenge this interpretation. We have performed a meta-analysis that suggests that the susceptibility of pluripotent cells to viruses is directly correlated with the presence of receptors or co-receptors for viral adhesion and entry. These results challenge the current view of pluripotent cells as intrinsically resistant to infections and raise the fundamental question of why these cells have sacrificed the major antiviral defence pathway if this renders them susceptible to viruses. Full article

The importance of empirical versus theoretical laws is a controversial issue in many scientific fields, the latter being generally accepted and the relevance of which is not discussed here. As in other areas, there are well-known theoretical and empirical formulas in geosciences that do not adequately represent the reality of a given phenomenon. Quantitative comparison of geophysical and petrophysical results with data from the other multiple fields that comprise the geosciences compels a high exigency to avoid discontinuities in existing relationships. However, the proposal of new empirical laws that more accurately reflect a given phenomenon is often considered insufficient to contradict existing formulas. The aim of this work is to defend the development of new empirical laws by showing that they constitute a true model of analysed behaviour if certain criteria are followed. This defence is especially needed when non-linearisable functions are required to fit the empirical data. To achieve this aim, this study shows the established algebraic function as a function of a single variable, whose main advantage is its application to phenomena of a geological nature that show two differentiated behaviours as the variable x is increased. A series of five examples of different phenomena related to geosciences is selected to demonstrate the level of accuracy that new empirical laws can reach in contrast to the widely accepted historical relationships. Full article

Necrotrophic fungi affect a wide range of plants and cause significant crop losses. For the activation of multi-layered innate immune defences, plants can be primed or pre-conditioned to rapidly and more efficiently counteract this pathogen. Untargeted and targeted metabolomics analyses were applied to elucidate the biochemical processes involved in the response of 3,5-dichloroanthranilic acid (3,5-DCAA) primed barley plants to Pyrenophora teres f. teres (Ptt). A susceptible barley cultivar (‘Hessekwa’) at the third leaf growth stage was treated with 3,5-DCAA 24 h prior to infection using a Ptt conidia suspension. The infection was monitored over 2, 4, and 6 days post-inoculation. For untargeted studies, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS) was used to analyse methanolic plant extracts. Acquired data were processed to generate the data matrices utilised in chemometric modelling and multi-dimensional data mining. For targeted studies, selected metabolites from the amino acids, phenolic acids, and alkaloids classes were quantified using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mass spectrometry. 3,5-DCAA was effective as a priming agent in delaying the onset and intensity of symptoms but could not prevent the progression of the disease. Unsupervised learning methods revealed clear differences between the sample extracts from the control plants and the infected plants. Both orthogonal projection to latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and ‘shared and unique structures’ (SUS) plots allowed for the extraction of potential markers of the primed and naïve plant responses to Ptt. These include classes of organic acids, fatty acids, amino acids, phenolic acids, and derivatives and flavonoids. Among these, 5-oxo-proline and citric acid were notable as priming response-related metabolites. Metabolites from the tricarboxylic acid pathway were only discriminant in the primed plant infected with Ptt. Furthermore, the quantification of targeted metabolites revealed that hydroxycinnamic acids were significantly more prominent in the primed infected plants, especially at 2 d.p.i. Our research advances efforts to better understand regulated and reprogrammed metabolic responses that constitute defence priming in barley against Ptt. Full article

The Thinopyrum elongatum Fhb7E locus has been proven to confer outstanding resistance to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) when transferred into wheat, minimizing yield loss and mycotoxin accumulation in grains. Despite their biological relevance and breeding implications, the molecular mechanisms underlying the resistant phenotype associated with Fhb7E have not been fully uncovered. To gain a broader understanding of processes involved in this complex plant–pathogen interaction, we analysed via untargeted metabolomics durum wheat (DW) rachises and grains upon spike inoculation with Fusarium graminearum (Fg) and water. The employment of DW near-isogenic recombinant lines carrying or lacking the Th. elongatum chromosome 7E region including Fhb7E on their 7AL arm, allowed clear-cut distinction between differentially accumulated disease-related metabolites. Besides confirming the rachis as key site of the main metabolic shift in plant response to FHB, and the upregulation of defence pathways (aromatic amino acid, phenylpropanoid, terpenoid) leading to antioxidants and lignin accumulation, novel insights were revealed. Fhb7E conferred constitutive and early-induced defence response, in which specific importance of polyamine biosynthesis, glutathione and vitamin B₆ metabolisms, along with presence of multiple routes for deoxynivalenol detoxification, was highlighted. The results suggested Fhb7E to correspond to a compound locus, triggering a multi-faceted plant response to Fg, effectively limiting Fg growth and mycotoxin production. Full article